Regents impose furloughs on 80% of UC workers

University of California President Mark Yudof, right, listens to public comments with UC Board of Regents members Richard Blum, left, and Lt. Governor John Garamendi at the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, Thursday, July 16, 2009. The board approved an emergency budget plan that forces tens of thousands of employees to take furloughs and pay cuts.
— (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

University of California President Mark Yudof, right, listens to public comments with UC Board of Regents members Richard Blum, left, and Lt. Governor John Garamendi at the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, Thursday, July 16, 2009. The board approved an emergency budget plan that forces tens of thousands of employees to take furloughs and pay cuts.
/ (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN FRANCISCO 
The University of California's governing board on Thursday approved an emergency budget plan that will force tens of thousands of employees to take furloughs and pay cuts.

The UC Board of Regents voted to furlough up to 80 percent of the university system's 180,000 workers to help address a $813 million budget shortfall triggered by an unprecedented reduction in state funding.

The 10-campus system, one of the country's leading public universities, is just one of many institutions being hit hard by California's budget crisis.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are struggling to close a $26 billion budget gap that is forcing deep cuts to education, health care and state services.

The UC furloughs are expected to cover about a quarter of the university's budget deficit. The remainder will be addressed by a previously approved student fee increase, debt refinancing and major cuts at individual campuses, which are already laying off staff, increasing class sizes and eliminating academic programs.

Employees ranging from janitors and clerical workers to professors and chancellors will be required to take furloughs, but there will be exemptions for several groups, including most students, workers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and researchers paid with outside funding.

Under the plan, employees will see their salaries reduced by 4 percent to 10 percent and take between 11 and 26 furlough days a year, with higher-paid employees taking larger pay cuts and getting more time off. The one-year plan takes effect Sept. 1.

The administration still needs to reach agreements on furloughs with unions that represent about a third of UC employees.